Hamilton Beach 31401 Countertop vs Cuisinart TOA-60 Toaster Oven Side-by-Side Comparison
Hamilton Beach 31401 vs Cuisinart TOA-60 Toaster Oven. A comparison between a small-sized, energy-saving toaster oven and the best medium-sized unit.
Specifications
Design
With a basic design, the Hamilton Beach 31401 doesn’t have any exterior feature that stands out. It makes up a little for this with its interior having quartz heating elements with safeguards.
Where the Cuisinart TOA-60 Air Fryer Toaster Oven shines most is in its simplistic design. Even though it only offers a few features, it does them all justice.
The oven features a powerful top-mounted convection fan and six nichrome heating elements, all powered with 1800 W. From our understanding, these two are the main factors behind the oven’s excellent performance.
Usability Comparison
While the Hamilton Beach 31401 doesn’t offer much in terms of usability, it also doesn’t cause any inconvenience. Although the analog control knobs can make it difficult to pinpoint an exact time and temperature, it wasn’t a big problem.
Due to its simplistic approach, the Cuisinart TOA-60 Air Fryer Toaster Oven doesn’t offer many usability features. However, it also doesn’t pose any problems.
For example, the oven lacks the automatic features and the ability to precisely adjust time and temperature that most digital units otherwise have. Nonetheless, its cooking performance is more than worth these minor inconveniences.
Performance Test
Our test results showed that the Hamilton Beach 31401 did a good job of making toast. However, it didn’t perform well in dishes that require a long cooking time and/or a high temperature, including pizza, whole roasted chicken, and baked french fries.
Our resulting test dishes were also mostly lacking in color, except for the toast. This was possibly due to the oven’s low power output in addition to having only two heating elements, unlike the Breville BOV450XL. One solution could be to decrease the amount of food compared to our test amount.
All of the Cuisinart TOA-60 Convection Toaster Oven Air Fryer’s results are in the top tier among our collected data. A big win for the oven’s performance is its steady and stable temperature. Combined with the fact that the convection fan is always deployed, it consistently produced excellent test dishes. Even though it doesn’t have a rotisserie kit for our Whole Roasted Chicken test, it still performed in a splendid manner.
Overall Scores
Pros & Cons
- Lightweight and small size
- Easy-to-clean stainless steel exterior
- Cool-touch door handle
- Simple control knobs
- Stay-on feature
- Quartz heating elements have safeguards
- Energy-saving
- Simple and straight-to-the-point control knobs
- Sturdy design and durable material
- Convection fan is all-applicable
- Electrical safety feature for the door
- Convenient slide-out crumb tray
- Easy-to-clean stainless steel exterior
- Plenty of recipes included in the user manual
- No convection fan
- No internal lighting
- No safety mechanism for the door
- Opening the door also turns off the light
- A bit heavier and taller than other same-type ovens
- Not very budget-friendly
Conclusion
In the battle of performance, the Cuisinart TOA-60 was the clear winner. The oven’s steady and stable temperature, combined with a strong convection system, consistently produced excellent results. Its power draw of 1800 W and six nichrome heating elements are two of its other prominent features.
On the other hand, the Hamilton Beach 31401 performed well solely at making toast. It was the only test where the food attains an even surface color despite the absence of a convection system in the oven.
Its weaknesses showed through the processes of baking pizza, roasting a whole chicken, and baking french fries. The oven has 2 quartz heating elements running on 1200 Watts of power which save energy and are suitable for the oven’s small size. However, this specification causes the oven to under-perform for dishes that require a long cooking time and/or a high temperature.
Although both ovens have a simple design, the Cuisinart’s is also equipped with a slide-out crumb tray and an interior light. In addition to their 100% analog control, each oven brings something unique to the table: The Hamilton has a stay-on function while the Cuisinart can cover an extra cooking method with its air fryer basket.
The Hamilton Beach 31401 is for you if you’re looking for an inexpensive, lightweight, small-sized, energy-saving toaster oven for one to two people. The Cuisinart TOA-60 is more suitable for someone looking for a robust, high-quality, and high-performing medium-sized convection toaster oven.
Behind the Comparison
Alan Nguyen is a writer and product reviewer at HealthyKitchen101. His major in English language teaching taught him to present concise information. In addition to his cooking hobby, he values the practical aspects of household appliances.
Tuyet Pham is an award-winning Saigonese chef passionate about delicious and healthful foods. At HealthyKitchen101, she develops recipes and collaborates with our Research, Testing, and Review lab to evaluate the performance of cooking appliances. Her assessments add a strong authoritative voice to our product scoring process.
Lap is Head of the Research, Testing, and Review Team (RTR Team) at HealthyKitchen101.com, where he directs and supervises the testing of kitchen gadgets and appliances.
